Keeping Up With Technology

Short Neck Finish Cuts Material Cost

A new short-neck PET bottle finish from Corvaglia Ltd., Eschlikon, Switzerland, reportedly offers a significant material savings and is compatible with other short-neck alternatives.

A new short-neck PET bottle finish from Corvaglia Ltd., Eschlikon, Switzerland, reportedly offers a significant material savings and is compatible with other short-neck alternatives. The 28-mm-diam. PCO Corvaglia neck finish is 16.8-mm tall, compared with 21 mm for the industry standard PCO 28 finish. It offers a material savings of up to 1.5 g in the bottle neck itself and an additional 0.7 g to 1.2 g in the cap. Tooling conversion costs are said to be lower than with other short-neck finishes. It is also said to be the only short-neck finish that maintains the distance between the neck ring and the tamper-resistant band. This means that existing grippers can be used on the filling line. Its height is identical to the three-start 26.8-mm "Alaska" finish that was recently adopted for non-carbonated water. The thread on the PCO Corvaglia incorporates more than two full turns for superior sealing performance vs. threads with only one full turn, allowing its use with carbonated beverages, Corvaglia claims. It can be used on bottles of various sizes and with different caps. Corvaglia's three closure designs weigh from 1.8 g to 2.3 g. The technology is not commercially protected so it can be used by any bottle manufacturer. It is currently being used for mineral-water bottles in Italy and will soon debut in carbonated soft drinks in Mexico, Brazil, and Poland. Tel: +41-71-97377-10 . www.corvaglia.ch